Suspect in assault of Kamloops Mountie arrested

Kamloops RCMP say officers arrested Michael Boyer on Monday afternoon following two intense days of searching, a manhunt that included the takedown of a vehicle on Highway 1 that police believe was connected to the suspect.

Boyer was not in the vehicle.

On Monday afternoon, CPl. Jodi Shelkie released a terse press release, noting Boyer had been arrested.

It is believed he was taken into custody at 217 Nelson Ave., the house where two men were shot on Oct. 23.

The house was surrounded by armed police on Monday.

Kamloops RCMP will hold a press conference Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. to discuss recent violent events in the city.

Kamloops Mounties were kept busy Saturday dealing with two incidents in which guns were fired, continuing a string of shootings in the city.

And, in one of the weekend events, a Mountie fired his weapon at a suspect who allegedly brandished his own gun and threatened to shoot the officer.

That altercation involving a handgun occurred at the Tournament Inn in Valleyview and sent a Kamloops Mountie to hospital while police continue to search for a suspect.

An earlier incident Saturday involved a 24-year-old man being shot at a Brocklehurst apartment building and suffering minor injuries.

A man and woman were arrested in connection with that call.

In connection with the Valleyview incident, Michael Shawn Boyer, 41, was arrested Monday afternoon. It is believed he was apprehended at 217 Nelson Ave., the North Shore house at which two men were shot on Oct. 23.

Mounties were at the address Monday with guns drawn.

Cpl. Jodi Shelkie said the situation in Valleyview escalated when a Kamloops Mountie outside the Tournament Inn, which is at 1893 East Trans-Canada Hwy., noticed a group of people in the parking lot acting suspicious.

Shelkie said he approached to investigate, which led to an attempt to detain a man.

She said an investigation has determined the suspect produced a handgun, pointed it at the officer and made threats to shoot the officer. The officer then fired his pistol at the suspect.

Shelkie said that while shots were fired, the officer was not injured by gunfire. He was injured during the altercation and treated and released from Royal Inland Hospital.

In the summer of 2016, Boyer was involved in a gunfire incident outside the Landmark Place condos in Sahali, at Summit Drive and McGill Road.

On June 25, 2016, a fight between two men on the sidewalk outside the condos led to a gun being fired. A seven-hour standoff with police followed, with Derek Muirhead, 20, eventually arrested and charged with numerous offences.

In court, Judge Stella Frame referred to allegations of a mid-morning gunfight on the streets of Kamloops, witnessed by five people.

Court proceedings show Boyer told police Muirhead challenged him to a fight and pulled out a handgun. During the struggle, Boyer said, the gun went off, but the bullet did not hit anybody.

Boyer told police he took the gun from Muirhead, punched him in the face and threw the weapon in a nearby bush.

Boyer was initially arrested.

He told police where he had stashed the firearm and was eventually released without charge.

Muirhead’s charges were eventually stayed by Crown.

At the time of the summer 2016 incident, both Muirhead and Boyer were living in the Landmark Place condos.

Boyer was also the subject of a Kamloops Daily News story in July 2011, when he underwent six hours of emergency brain surgery after being injured in a boxing match during an amateur So You Think You Wanna Fight competition on the Tk’emlups Indian Band reserve.

Boyer was already on disability at the time of the boxing injury due to injuries sustained when he was hit by a vehicle when he was seven years old.

Meanwhile, a man and woman were arrested in Brocklehurst on Saturday following the shooting that sent a man to hospital.

Kamloops Mounties were called to an apartment building at 805 Holt St. at 10:15 a.m. to investigate a report that a firearm was discharged, with the bullet injuring the 24-year-old.

His injuries were minor and he was treated and released from Royal Inland Hospital.

On Monday, RCMP said they believe two people in a next-door unit were involved in a violent altercation when a handgun carried by one of them accidentally discharged, going through the wall and hitting the neighbour.

When police were called, they cordoned off roads in the area of Tranquille Road, Holt Street and Greenfield Avenue as they worked to establish what happened.

A neighbour said the police focus seemed to be on unit 105.

Staff Sgt. Michel Grondin said a 45-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman were taken into custody and are co-operating with the investigation. One of the pair is expected to be charged with firearms offences.

Saturday’s gunplay was the latest in a series of shootings in Kamloops, some gang-related, stretching back to the beginning of 2016.

On Feb. 18, 2016: a man who was shot in the leg at the Petro-Canada station in west Kamloops.

The suspect fled the scene before police arrived.

Police said the victim was not being co-operative with investigators and no arrests were made, nor charges laid.

That shooting was followed by the June 25, 2016 gunfire incident on McGill Road involving Muirhead and Boyer.

On Sept. 21 of this year, Konaam Shirzad, co-founder of the Red Scorpions gang, was killed after being shot multiple times in the head as he and two gang associates walked near Shirzad’s home on Hudson’s Bay Trail in the Guerin Creek subdivision.

One of those gang associates with Shirzad, Ibrahim Amjad Ibrahim, was shot to death in Richmond less than three weeks later.

On Oct. 23 of this year, two men were shot at a house at 217 Nelson Ave. on the North Shore. Neither is co-operating with police and an arrest has yet to be made.